Project M

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For other uses, see Project M (disambiguation).

Project M
Designer(s)
Project M Development Team
SeriesSuper Smash Bros. (unofficially)
Platform(s)Wii
ReleaseFebruary 7, 2011
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Project M is a

palette swap of Mario), Mewtwo, and Roy
, who were present in Melee but were cut from Brawl due to time constraints. In addition, it features a new art style for in-game menus and allows players to choose certain characters individually when they are only accessible as transformations of other ones in Brawl.

Development started in early 2010 with the goals of reworking

Falco Lombardi to mechanically play like he did in Melee and increasing the accessibility of the gameplay style, but the project quickly evolved to a full-scale reworking of Brawl. The game's first demo build was released on February 7, 2011, and development continued until December 1, 2015, when the PMDT announced it would cease further development of Project M. The game has received positive comments from reviewers, amassed a player base of over 500,000, surpassed three million downloads, and been played in many professional tournaments
.

Gameplay

See also: Super Smash Bros. Brawl § Gameplay, and Super Smash Bros. Melee § Gameplay
palette swap of Mario), Mewtwo, and Roy
, who were cut from Brawl's roster.

stock system, or by achieving the most KOs after a set amount of time.[1][2]

SD card.[4] Players who own an NTSC Wii can install the game without any software modifications,[5] but they must delete all custom stages created in Brawl because of the way files are stored.[4]

Development

A large number of

competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee players were disappointed upon the release of its sequel Brawl six-and-a-half years after the release of Melee. The general consensus among competitive players was that the latter game's developers had reworked the older battling system to better appeal to casual gamers, by making the attacks and movement of the game significantly slower in general and adding a greater degree of randomness, luck, and unpredictability, in contrast to Melee, which has more straightforward, skill-based gameplay. Of particular infamy was a new "tripping" mechanic, by which a character occasionally and randomly slips and falls when changing their direction while running.[6]

Project M first began as a development project to rework the character

Falco to play like he did in Melee.[7] The designers' goal at the time was for the game to be accessible to newcomers and encourage people to get better at the game, which was accomplished by creating a character roster that is more balanced.[8] The mod's first demo was announced on January 15, 2011, with a release date of late January or early February in time for the Pound 5 tournament, where it was featured. It featured 14 of the 39 characters in Brawl, as well as new stages Brawl had not included.[9] It was later given a solid date of February 7, 2011.[10] A patch was later created to fix the demo's bugs and fine-tune the player's control of their movement direction after being attacked.[11]

By the release of the game's second demo in March 2011, the team's goals for the mod had expanded to a total overhaul of Brawl to better match Melee's gameplay mechanics.

palette swaps for the characters.[17] Version 2.5 was released on December 28.[18]

Originally as part of an April Fool's Day joke, the PMDT announced that a new "Turbo mode"—inspired by a YouTube video called "Melee Impossible" that showed off powerful combos—would be featured in the upcoming version 3.0.[19] The designers set up a Turbo Tuesday video series showing off the mode with various characters, such as Mario and Ike, once a week.[20] A 2.6 demo was announced on June 26, 2013,[21] and it was released on July 17, 2013.[22] The designers hoped to feature the Turbo mode in this update, but it was not ready in time.[20] The designers added a "Clone Engine" to the game that allowed them to make the character Roy, whose only appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series at the time was in Melee. They designed Roy by taking a clone of Marth and changing the clone into the desired result, along with using the same use of the engine to make the character Mewtwo, albeit with major edits to its model, due to it and Lucario having different move-sets. In order to avoid cease-and-desist letters from Nintendo, the designers explained that they would not use this engine to make new fighters who debuted in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.[23] The designers added new alternate costumes for a number of characters, including Dr. Mario, who was previously cut from Brawl, for Mario.[24] It was given a release date of December 9, 2013 with a final character count of 41, more than any previous Super Smash Bros. game at the time.[25] Senior designer Corey Archer stated that there would probably be only one more update before he considers Project M complete; he suggested that this update may contain new Nintendo characters.[8]

Version 3.5 was released on November 14, 2014.

debug mode and "All-Star Versus," a mode allowing players to use a different character on every life.[27] A public beta of Version 3.6 was released on June 23, 2015. It added more costumes and stages, new music, a new in-game announcer, and the ability for players to choose between the modified and unmodified versions of stages before battle among other changes.[28][29] This was the first non-demo version of Project M which has had a public beta before final release. Version 3.6 was officially released on August 16, 2015, and included even more additional content on top of what was present in the Beta release.[30]
Included were additional balance stages, a brand new Wario Land stage, more music, a new announcer to replace the one used in the Beta and various tweaks and fixes to bugs and errors found during the 3.6 Beta period.

On December 1, 2015, the PMDT announced it would cease further development of Project M, effective immediately, in favor of beginning development on an original project.[31] The development team denied allegations that legal threats from Nintendo were the cause of the project's termination.[32] According to the team's attorney and business consultant, Ryan Morrison, the decision was not made as a result of a cease-and-desist notice or legal action by Nintendo.[31][33] One member of the development team stated that the mod's cancellation was to prevent future legal issues.[34] Members of the PMDT later went on to form the game studio Wavedash Games and develop Icons: Combat Arena, a fighting game with similar mechanics to Project M.[35]

After Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to tournament organizer The Big House for their use of the Slippi emulator in their 2020 Melee tournament,[36] Project M's official website was updated for the first time in several years, voicing support for the Smash Bros. community and linking to a mod derived from Project M, called Project+.[37]

Characters

Project M includes a number of adjustments and tweaks intended to make the characters from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl more balanced, as well as add touches that felt more true to their games of origin. For example, the staff felt that the character

Roy, who had been present in Melee but were cut from the cast in Brawl, were added back to the roster and given new abilities to make the previously low-tier characters more viable.[44]

Before the project was discontinued, several newcomers were planned for addition, including

Fire Emblem, and Isaac from Golden Sun. A development build containing these characters was leaked on 4chan in the aftermath of the project's discontinuation.[45] However, Knuckles would later be added to Project M's spiritual successor, Project+.[46]

Reception

The Project M Development Team claimed that the 2.0 demo had received 46,000 downloads by May 23, 2012,[15] and 100,000 by December 9, 2013.[8] As of November 15, 2014, Project M version 3.0 has been downloaded over 920,000 times.[47] The version 3.6 beta has been downloaded over 106,791 times, and version 3.5 has been downloaded over 615,809 times as of July 25, 2015.[48]

Project M 2.5 was featured for a special invitation 16-person tournament at

Apex 2015, prompting negative reactions from players.[50]

The game has received positive attention from the media. Ryan Rigney of

GamesRadar called the game "beautiful" and enjoyed the presence of "many edits that will make the average Smash fan squeal."[44]

Prior to its discontinuation, Nintendo's Miiverse Internet forum would apply an automatic ban to those who mentioned Project M on the grounds of it being "criminal content", including the acronym "PM".[32]

References

  1. ^ "The Basic Rules". Smash Bros. DOJO!!. May 22, 2007. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
  2. ^ Cassamassina, Matt (March 4, 2008). "One of the Most Anticipated Nintendo Games Is Finally Here". IGN. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
  3. ^ "About". Project M Back Room. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Hernandez, Patricia (December 10, 2013). "How To Play Project M, The Best Smash Bros. Mod Around". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  5. Escapist Magazine. Archived
    from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  6. ^
    1UP.com. Archived from the original
    on May 11, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  7. ^ George, Richard (April 19, 2012). "Rebuilding Super Smash Bros". IGN. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d Rigney, Ryan (December 9, 2013). "The Best Super Smash Bros. Isn't Made by Nintendo". Wired. Archived from the original on January 21, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  9. ^ "Announcing the Project M Demo". Project M Back Room. January 15, 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  10. ^ "Project M Demo Release Date Announcement". Project M Back Room. February 3, 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  11. ^ "Project M Blog Post #1". Project M Back Room. March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  12. ^ "Genesis 2 Tournament Roster Revealed". Project M Back Room. July 14, 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  13. ^ "Demo 2 Release Date: 4/15/2012! 29 Characters!". Project M Back Room. March 31, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  14. ^ "Demo 2 Roster Confirmations! Demo 1 Cast Confirmed!". Project M Back Room. April 12, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  15. ^ a b "Project M Demo 2.1 Patch Release!". Project M Back Room. May 23, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  16. ^ "Project M Demo 2.5 Announcement". Project M Back Room. September 10, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  17. ^ "New Features in Demo 2.5: Character recolors and Stage Updates!". Project M Back Room. December 27, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  18. ^ "Demo 2.5 Release Date!". Project M Back Room. December 11, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  19. ^ "Turbo Mode Announced". Project M Back Room. April 2, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  20. ^ a b "We're Back & Turbo Tuesdays". Project M Back Room. September 17, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  21. ^ "Welcome to the New Website". Project M Back Room. June 26, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  22. ^ "Project M Demo 2.6 released!". Project M Back Room. July 17, 2013. Archived from the original on July 21, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  23. ^ "Clone Engine Blogpost - Limits, Restrictions, and Possibilities". Project M Back Room. September 27, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  24. ^ "Alternate Costumes Blogpost". Project M Back Room. November 6, 2013. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  25. ^ "Project M 3.0 Trailer Released!". Project M Back Room. November 11, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  26. ^ "Project M on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on December 3, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  27. ^ "Project M 3.5 Released!". Project M Development Team. November 14, 2014. Archived from the original on November 19, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  28. ^ "Project M 3.6 Announced!". Project M Development Team. March 29, 2015. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  29. ^ "Project M 3.6 Beta Released!". Project M Development Team. June 23, 2015. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  30. ^ "Project M 3.6 Full Changelist". Project M Development Team. August 16, 2015. Archived from the original on August 17, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  31. ^ a b "Project M". Project M. December 1, 2015. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  32. ^ a b Klepek, Patrick (December 2, 2015). "Smash Community In Shock Over Sudden End To Popular Mod, Project M". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  33. ^ Morrison, Ryan (December 1, 2015). "Video Game Attorney on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  34. ^ Klepek, Patrick (December 3, 2015). "The Smash Community Is Chaos Right Now". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on December 5, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  35. ^ Phillips, Tom (July 17, 2017). "Smash Bros. Fans unveil full game Icons: Combat Arena". Eurogamer. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  36. ^ "The Big House announces Cease and Desist". Twitter. TheBigHouseSSB. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  37. ^ "Project M isn't just a mod or a game. It's a community". Project M. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  38. ^ "Wario". Project M Back Room. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  39. ^ "Mario". Project M Back Room. Archived from the original on July 2, 2013. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  40. ^ "Peach". Project M Back Room. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  41. ^ "Bowser". Project M Back Room. Archived from the original on July 2, 2013. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  42. ^ "Yoshi". Project M Back Room. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  43. ^ "Ganondorf". Project M. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013.
  44. ^
    GamesRadar. Archived
    from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  45. ^ Khan, Imad (December 11, 2015). "Why the Internet mourned Project M". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on May 9, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  46. ^ "Project+ Brings Knuckles to Super Smash Bros". DualShockers. March 23, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
  47. ^ Project M Back Room (user ProjectMGame). "Project M on Twitter" (Twitter). Archived from the original on December 3, 2015. Final total download count for 3.0 is going in the records as 923,458. Thank you so much for your incredible support everyone!
  48. ^ "Download". Project M. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015.
  49. ^ "Invitational Project M event at APEX 2013". Project M Back Room. December 19, 2012. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  50. ^ Ian J. Barker (November 10, 2014). "Fighting game organizer targeted with death threats". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  51. ^ Devore, Jordan (November 19, 2013). "Smash Bros. mod Project M 3.0 gets one heck of a trailer". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.

External links

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